IMBALANCED LIFESTYLES LEAD TO PHYSICAL AILMENTS
“The modern work place culture is a double-edged sword where you can go after your dreams — and lose your inner center in the shuffle,” says Sujata Ringawa, a certified Anusara Yoga teacher and founder of Yoga Life Works in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. And if you are juggling a relationship, family obligations, children and friendships, on top of your career, the emotional and physical toll can be tremendous. Tack on any more stress, like a sick parent or a hostile work environment, and you are one burdened mess.
“We often sacrifice our well-being in order to ‘do well:’ We skip exercise, eat on the run, schedule ourselves beyond our capacity, forget to breathe and continue to measure our self-worth according to the perceptions of our peers and supervisors,” says Ringawa. “This imbalanced way of living leads to ailments such as headaches, backaches, eye and neck strain and a host of other related conditions.”
Insomnia is a good example of an imbalanced lifestyle. According to Mary Beth Markus, founder of Phoenix Arizona’s first yoga studio, Desert Song Yoga, the number of yogis and yoginis who are desperate to catch some ZZZs is increasing. “People are not sleeping. Whether it’s hormones — [women] in their late 40’s early 50’s, their sleep patterns are just trashed — or people who are so stressed out and anxious, they can’t calm their nervous system… and it’s like you’re in this fight or flight [mode] when you try to lay down and go to sleep.”
Adds Lea Kraemer, founder and owner of PRANA MANDIR Yoga Studio in New York City, New York, “Everyone seems to be running around, running out of time and running them selves ragged!”
Women lead increasingly manic lives, and as we saddle on more responsibility, we begin to put our own wellness at risk. So, unless you have a flask of liquid pain relief stashed in your desk drawer, you might want to consider yoga.
DESK-SIDE YOGA TO THE MIND AND BODY RESCUE
Yoga is an ancient technique that incorporates postures, breath-work, meditation and, in some cases, chanting in order to create flexibility, balance and unify the mind, body and spirit. The practice has become increasingly popular thanks to Madonna’s diesel arms and Jennifer Aniston’s lean legs. And while the pursuit of a hot body has enticed many a newbie to check out this 5000-year-old practice, yoga, with regular practice at home or in a studio, can also help eliminate the gunk, like stress, anger, anxiety, and sadness, that clogs our ability to enjoy life.“I had an epiphany after my first few classes,” says Cheryl LoMaglio, an administrations director at a national men’s magazine in New York City. “I realized how poor my posture was, and how much strain working at a computer even for a short period of time can really misalign your whole body.”
Besides remedying her physical ailments, LoMaglio has learned to take the techniques she learned on the yoga mat and apply them to her life off the mat. Whenever she feels like she’s on the verge of “losing it” at the office, the 34-year-old stops what she is doing and practices a yogic breath technique, chants a mantra -- or, if she can get out of work at a reasonable hour, hits up a class. “We [can’t] step away from our jobs, those are important,” says Desert Song Yoga’s Markus. “It’s just that we need to bring consciousness back to the work day.... So if you’re on a computer all day, then every hour, you need stop and do a few things that would take from a minute to five-minutes tops, and you would drive home with no pain.”
Finding a balance is a life-long pursuit. Since work is often a large part of life, its essential to incorporate healthy lifestyle activities to buffer the physical and mental stress that work can create. Start with desk-side yoga postures to break the stress and monotony of work and be one step closer to finding your balance.
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